Page 26 of Reckless Hearts

“Marcus!” It’s Saskia’s voice.

Marcus snatches his hand away from my face. He fumbles with his trousers and underwear, pulling them back up.

“Marcus, where are you?” Saskia’s calling across the lawn.

Marcus finishes tying his pants and steps out of the shadows.

“I’m here,” he says.

“I need you. We’re about to cut the cake.”

I’m not surprised Marcus’s absence has been noticed while mine hasn’t.

“Well, I am known for my cake-cutting abilities,” he says.

“Jasmine needs Aladdin’s magic to help me make a wish.”

“As always, I’m at your command,” he says as he strolls toward her.

“Do I want to know what you were getting up to in the bushes?” I hear Saskia ask when he reaches her.

“Probably not,” he says lightly.

She laughs as she wraps her arms around him.

“You’re such a slut,” she says affectionally.

“I believe the correct term is stud,” he replies.

My sister and her best friend disappear back into the castle while I’m left kneeling on the damp grass.

8

Marcus

A horn blares outside my flat at six a.m. I grab my bag and bolt down the stairs to where Saskia’s Range Rover is waiting by the curb. She winds down the window and gives me a large, anticipatory grin.

“You ready for the road?” she asks.

“I was born ready,” I say. I open the boot of her car and throw my canvas duffel bag next to an extraordinarily large suitcase.

“How much stuff do you need for one weekend away skiing?” I ask as I climb into the front seat.

“A girl’s got to be prepared for every contingency,” she says.

“It looks like you’re prepared for the zombie apocalypse,” I say.

She shrugs. “If the zombie apocalypse happens, I’m sure you’ll be the first person grateful I packed my GHD hairdryer.”

I laugh as she pulls away from the curb.

“I thought we’d head to Neet’s first and then swing back and grab John,” she says as she hits the one-way system surrounding Dunedin’s CBD and abruptly swerves into another lane. Saskia drives like she does everything in life, with complete confidence that the world will bend to her will.

“Taylor pulled out at the last minute because she’s sick, but I found a replacement.”

I’m already fumbling in my phone to pull up the playlist I prepared for the trip. “Who’s the replacement?”

“Seb.”